Late-summer Bounty: Tomato, Prosciutto, and Ricotta Tart

Screw Christmas - right now is the most wonderful time of the year! Okay, that was a bit harsh, but I don't see how Christmas can even compete with the glory that is tomato season. Right now, just when you feel like the days should be cooling down but they're readily throwing their 90F temperatures in your face; when all you want to do is start wearing sweaters and roast things, but you can barely stand to cook it's so hot in your house? This is the best part of summer for me. Granted, summer is probably my least favorite season, even though many of my favorite vegetables and fruits are in season, and especially THIS part of summer, garden- and market-fresh tomatoes make it all worthwhile. I can stand the hotter-than-hot afternoons and evenings knowing that a wonderful meal is only a few juicy slices away. This is the time of year I yearn for my own vegetable garden so I could brave the heat only to come back to the kitchen with a basket full of goodies to whip up into a meal like this: Tomato, Prosciutto, and Ricotta Tart.

I'll readily admit that ricotta is my least favorite of all the cheeses. There's just something about the texture and flavor that I never really got on board with. Now, I have made my own ricotta (I did so a couple of years ago for my Ina Garten-themed birthday party, where all the food I made was from The Barefoot Contessa and I even dressed up as her, and one of the dips was a homemade herbed ricotta cheese - it's super easy to make) and it was slightly better; at least it was more milky/creamy than whatever store-bought ricotta tastes like. I figure with this dish I could easily overlook the ricotta for the almost 2 pounds of tomatoes, fresh herbs, prosciutto, and puff pastry. I've always been delighted with the recipes from Sunset magazine and this one is no different. The flavors came together to create this light, and deceptively filling, tart. The fresh juicy tomatoes, the lemony ricotta cheese, the splash of fresh herbs (I went ahead and used BOTH basil and mint for one of the most excellent flavor combinations I've recently encountered), the salty tang of prosciutto, all supported by the buttery crispy puff pastry made for a wonderful summer Sunday meal. While I did groan a bit at having to turn on my oven for this, I soon forgot the heat after I bit into this tart. This is the perfect meal to have for kicking back in your garden with a glass of wine. This is also a perfect appetizer or first-course for a garden dinner party, too! A great thing about this dish is that it's easily vegetarian-friendly. Simply eliminate the prosciutto and you've got a great appetizer (or meal) that'll please just about everyone.

Oh yeah and it made for the perfect individually packaged lunches!

A few things of note:

• Don't even try to adhere to the tart measurements in the recipe. The puff pastry I bought for this (Pepperidge Farms) is two square sheets. Honestly, once thawed and rolled out a bit, it's the perfect size for a party of 4 as meal (or 2 meals for 2 people). I tried piecing together trimmed bits and I was left with the trimmed bits coming apart in the baking process. So not worth the hassle!
• I used a full pound of ricotta cheese and I think it was a bit too much, but measuring out the 1-1/3C would've left me with too little cheese in the package to save. I think I'd go just with the half-pound next time. However, if you like ricotta use as much as you like!
• As I said above, I used both basil and mint, when the recipe called for either/or. I also didn't deal with trimming the "tiny" whole leaves and just chiffonaded both the basil and mint leaves. Believe me, having both makes for a much more complex and refreshing flavor! I also cut too much herbs, so I threw them in with the simple salad I served alongside the tart (mixed greens + arugula, tossed with olive oil and lemon juice).
• I also used a mix of large heirloom tomatoes and cherry tomatoes (the cherry tomatoes were from my coworker's garden - they were delicious!). I thinly sliced the big tomatoes and halved the cherry tomatoes, per the recipe, and it worked out wonderfully. The more colorful the better, really!

Bon appetit!

Vegetarian Madness! Veggie Wheat-Berry Salad with Warm Pita and Grilled Halloumi

But first, a confession. Had you asked me what "halloumi" was 6 months ago, I would've ventured a guess that it was a type of fish. I would have, of course, been absolutely wrong. I had been to countless Greek and Mediterranean restaurants and seen something called "halloumi" on the menu and immediately regarded it as a type of fish, perhaps a white fish like halibut or mahi-mahi or a bronzino. Although, now I see that I probably just equated the way halloumi sounded with a combination of the words halibut and mahi-mahi (I believe covered the fact that I'm weird. Moving on...) Regardless, I would've never thought it was a type of cheese. What kind of name is halloumi for a type of cheese anyway? Well, it is and my sincerest apologies for the island of Cyprus (and its inhabitants) where halloumi originated. Halloumi is, indeed, a cheese and I learned this at a birthday party earlier this year. What's wondrous about halloumi is that it doesn't melt, but one of its famed preparations is grilling it. I'm not sure what kind of magic keeps this brined sheeps' milk cheese from melting once applied to heat, but it remains intact and this delicious salty-briny-crispy crust forms on the outside. It's delicious and irresistible. My friend's boyfriend grilled some up for my friend's birthday party and it just tasted so damn good. Plus, it's super quick and easy. Just a non-stick pan is needed over medium heat. Plop down a few slices, grill a couple minutes on either side, then eat! Well, okay, wait for it to cool down a bit, but then eat!

Weirdly enough, I forgot about the halloumi until this weekend while leafing through this month's issue of Women's Health. Every once in a while they'll have a section on food and cooking chock-full of delicious recipes. This month's held a particular gem: Veggie Wheat Berry Salad. My husband, when presented with this week's menu, immediately said "I knew you'd pick to make that!" pointing to the recipe in the magazine. I asked him why he would think that I would be drawn to this recipe, despite the fact that it sounded delicious and perfect for a summer evening. "Because of the photo. It's in a small little glass, all pretty and colorful." Indeed the photo shows a small appetizer-sized glass full of colorful veggies and little fluffy-looking wheat berries. I can't deny that the photo drew me into the recipe in the first place (ironic considering one of this month's articles is on food porn...), but it was the potential for a delicious one-salad meal with fresh summer veggies and chewy wheat berries. I fell in love with wheat berries when I was living in London. One of the yogurt varieties/brands had winter wheat berries stirred throughout. The yogurt itself was sublime (so much better than the yogurt in the states), but the addition of the wheat berries...it made it more filling and you'd find these little chewy bits of deliciousness amid the creamy clouds of yogurt and sweet chunks of strawberries. I ate more yogurt while I was in London that I'd eaten my entire life. Anyway, for the longest time I didn't know what these little bits were in my yogurt. But now I know and I'm totally going to cook up a batch of plain wheat berries and sprinkle them in my yogurt from now on.

Anyway, getting back to the salad, and the meal as a whole, it was perfect: savory and fresh. I couldn't find any green bell peppers at the store, and wanting a bit more color than red, I found a few purple bell peppers and picked those up (of course, forgetting that the red onion is also purple, but they still stood out). The dressing is a great combination of tangy and savory, akin to the "broth" in a gazpacho (thanks, in part, to the red wine vinegar and Worcestershire sauce). Overall it had a very gazpacho-like quality, but much more filling due to the chewy and delicious wheat berries. Originally, I wasn't sure if this would be filling enough for a dinner, which is why I toasted up a pita bread and grilled up the halloumi. Everything worked so well together. After taking a bit of pita and cheese with a bit of olive oil, a bit of the salad would cleanse the palate. This would make an excellent picnic meal (either pre-grill the cheese or use a pan or be extra-special careful on the open BBQ). The salad itself, of course, is perfect for summer potlucks, too!